Acts 14.22 reports, strengthening the disciples by encouraging them to continue in the faith and by 
telling them, “It is necessary to go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.”
When we preach the gospel we promise people their lives will get better not harder. We want success in our ask not commitment to our offer. We get people to pray with us but few walk with us. We are doing it wrong. (more…)
2 Chronicles 31.2 observes, Hezekiah organized the groups of priests and Levites for their respective 
tasks, handing out job descriptions for conducting the services of worship: making the various offerings, and making sure that thanks and praise took place wherever and whenever GOD was worshiped.
Two essential elements of worship of the One true God is thanks and praise. We give God thanks for all He has done for us. We praise God for Who He is. Thanks and praise are critical elements of our worship because they take our eyes off of ourselves and place our focus where its always supposed to be: upon God. (more…)
Luke 1.29-33 records, Mary was thoroughly shaken, wondering what was behind a greeting like that. But the angel assured her, “Mary, you have nothing to fear. God has a surprise…
Zechariah 7.4-6 records, GOD -of-the-Angel-Armies gave me this Message for them, for all the people and for the priests: “When you held days of fasting every fifth and seventh month…
Luke 24. 28-31 records, they came to the edge of the village where they were headed. He acted as if He were going on but they pressed Him: Stay and have supper with us. It’s nearly evening; the day is done. So He went in with them. And here is what happened: He sat down at the table with them
. Taking the bread, He blessed and broke and gave it to them. At that moment, open-eyed, wide-eyed, they recognized Him. And then He disappeared.
We take God so lightly, in our narcissism we believe Him to be all about us. As our Creator, we are to be all about Him and He treats us that way! (more…)
1 John 4.21 is clear, The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. 
You’ve got to love both.
It is absolutely amazing to me that the Creator has so completely intertwined His command to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, with the command to love our neighbor as our self. This command of God is entirely unique to Christianity among all religions in the world, now or ever. (more…)
1 John 2.2-6 observes, here’s how we can be sure that we know God in the right way: Keep his 
commandments. If someone claims, “I know him well!” but doesn’t keep his commandments, he’s obviously a liar. His life doesn’t match his words. But the one who keeps God’s word is the person in whom we see God’s mature love. This is the only way to be sure we’re in God. Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived.
Who are the people who truly know and belong to the One true God? They are easy to identify. (more…)
James 2.1 commands, my dear friends, don’t let public opinion influence how you live out our glorious, 
Christ-originated faith.
What is the public opinion of Christianity? For too many it is seen as a constraint upon societal behavior. Why is this so? (more…)
Hebrews 1.8-9 describes, God the Father saying to the Son, You’re God, and on the throne for good;
Your rule makes everything right. You love it when things are right; You hate it when things are wrong. That is why God, Your God, poured fragrant oil on Your head, marking You out as king, far above Your dear companions.
This country was founded by people who were seeking a place to worship God as they believed best, free from government rules and regulations, in order to live lives pleasing to Him. So many came and so many worshiped Him in so many different ways. The one common denominator among them was their focus upon Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords.
2 Kings 13.22-24 records, Hazael king of Aram badgered and bedeviled Israel all through the reign of
Jehoahaz. But GOD was gracious and showed mercy to them. He stuck with them out of respect for his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He never gave up on them, never even considered discarding them, even to this day. Hazael king of Aram died. His son Ben-Hadad was the next king.
The world has no idea how fortunate we are that God is good. Seriously, if God were really evil think of how awful our lives would really be. (more…)
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